WhatsApp order templates: 28 messages from order confirmation to refund

A WhatsApp order template is a pre-approved utility message that tells a customer something about their own order: it's confirmed, paid, shipped, delayed, canceled or refunded. Meta reviews each template before you use it. To stay in the cheaper utility category, the message must be specific to that order and contain no promotion.

Here is where each template fits in the order lifecycle:

The examples use named variables such as {{order_number}}; Meta also accepts numbered ones like {{1}}. Every order confirmation message sample below avoids starting or ending with a variable, because Meta rejects templates that do. Shorter variants of several of these live in the template library.

The WhatsApp order confirmation message is the one customers read most closely, because it's proof their money went somewhere. Send it the moment the order is created, with the order number, the total and a button to the order page. If you check orders by hand before accepting them, send an order placed message first and the confirmation after.

A payment received message closes the loop on prepaid orders, especially bank transfers and UPI payments that customers can't see land. A failed payment needs a message just as fast, with a way to retry.

Cash on delivery confirmation

A COD confirmation message on WhatsApp asks the customer to confirm the order with one tap before you ship it. Quick-reply buttons do the work, and a tap also opens a 24-hour service window for your follow-up.

COD confirmation is a utility message because it confirms an order the customer placed. Adding a discount for switching to prepaid makes it marketing, so send any prepaid offer separately, if at all. The full flow, with follow-ups and order tags, is on the COD confirmation page.

The order dispatched message is the one that heads off 'where is my order?' questions, so include the carrier, the tracking number and an expected date. An out for delivery message on the day itself gets someone to the door and cuts failed deliveries.

Delay news lands better when it arrives before the customer has to ask. Send delay and failed-delivery messages as soon as you know, with a new date or a way to fix the problem.

Keep compensation out of delay notices if you want them to stay utility. Meta's own guidelines list a delivery-delay apology that adds a store credit as a marketing example.

An order canceled message should say who canceled, what happens to the money and when. Return and refund messages follow the same rule: status, amount, date.

Meta accepts feedback requests about a specific order as utility; a generic request for feedback, or one with an offer attached, is marketing. Timing and wording for public reviews are in how to get customer reviews on WhatsApp.

Utility messages cost a fraction of marketing messages in most countries, and Meta decides which is which. Under its template category guidelines, a utility template must be non-promotional and specific to the user's order, account or transaction. Order messages shouldn't promote, upsell or cross-sell, include offers or push renewals.

What turns an order template into marketing:

• A discount on the next order, even as a last line under a confirmation.
• Product recommendations, such as 'customers also bought'.
• A delay apology that adds a store credit.
• Cart reminders, which Meta counts as marketing even when the customer started checkout.
• Vague text, such as a template that is only a variable or only 'Congratulations'.

Since April 9, 2025, a template submitted as utility that Meta judges to be marketing is approved as marketing, and Meta keeps re-checking approved templates. Businesses that keep miscategorizing face escalating restrictions: a warning, then a cap on utility volume, then every utility template recategorized as marketing for 7 days, or 30 for repeat cases.

Utility messages are billed per delivered message at the rate for your customer's country, well below marketing. A utility template sent while the customer's 24-hour service window is open costs nothing until September 30, 2026; from October 1, 2026, Meta charges for those too. The WhatsApp Business API pricing guide shows what that means for a month of orders.

• Variables: named, like {{order_number}} in lowercase with underscores, or numbered in order, like {{1}} and {{2}}. Submit a realistic sample value for each.
• Placement: never start or end the body with a variable, and don't pack in so many variables that little fixed text is left. Meta rejects both.
• Length: body text up to 1,024 characters; header and footer up to 60 each. Most order messages need under 300.
• Buttons: up to 10 in total, with labels of 25 characters or fewer, at most two URL buttons and one phone number button. A URL button can take one variable at the end of the address.
• Quick replies: YES/NO or Reschedule/Update address buttons let customers answer with one tap, and the tap opens a 24-hour service window for your reply.
• Languages: each language is a separate template with its own review, so submit every language your customers use.
• Sensitive data: never ask for full card or bank account numbers in a template. WhatsApp's policy forbids it, and Meta rejects those templates.
• Review time: Meta says review can take up to 24 hours, so submit templates before the day you switch an automation on.

Order messages only help if they go out the moment something changes, which means automation tied to your store. On Shopify, Recoverly does this out of the box:

• Order and shipping updates: a confirmation the moment an order is created, plus shipped, in transit, out for delivery and delivered messages, each with its own switch and template. Tracking link, carrier and ETA fill in automatically, and on the Pro plan the Shiprocket integration fires milestones on live carrier scans.
• COD confirmation: YES/NO buttons on every cash on delivery order, up to two follow-ups (a reminder after 4 hours by default, and an optional last one after 24), and Shopify tags such as cod-confirmed and cod-declined. A NO can cancel the order and restock the items.
• Review requests: one ask per order, 1 to 14 days after delivery (3 by default), linked to your review app or Google profile.

Typical results cited for these flows: about 98% read rates on order messages, up to 60% fewer 'where is my order?' tickets and about 40% fewer COD returns. Templates come in eight languages, with Meta approval handled inside the app. Order updates and COD confirmation are on the Lite plan at $19/month after a 7-day free trial. Not on Shopify? The web app, in early access, can trigger order messages from webhooks, Zapier or forms.